Dr Fridus Steijlen

Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)

He studied anthropology, with a specialization in Indonesia and ethnic minorities, especially Moluccans, in the Netherlands, at the University of Amsterdam (graduation 1984).

After his graduation he worked at various institutions, particularly the University of Amsterdam and the Free University of Amsterdam. In 1996 he obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam with a doctoral thesis on the history of Moluccan nationalism in the Netherlands. In 2002 he became a researcher at the KITLV.

Steijlen's areas of research have been broad, ranging from ethnic minorities - especially of Moluccan, Indo-European and Caribbean backgrounds - in the Netherlands, to the contemporary history of Indonesia. At the KITLV he is responsible for the audiovisual project 'Recording the future'. This is an ambitious long term data generating research project creating an audiovisual archive on everyday life in Indonesia, exhibitions and documentaries.